Demand for bandwidth within Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWAN) standards is always increasing. Also, more data intensive services, such as streaming video, and higher volumes of localized traffic create demand for improved uniformity of service across WWANs, including near boundaries between wireless communication towers (tower). To address these demands, spectrum is being reused by wireless communication towers (tower) that are closer and closer together.
Additionally, WWANs have come to support heterogeneous networks of towers. These heterogeneous networks use relatively low power towers within the coverage area of relatively more powerful towers. The relatively low power towers can improve the uniformity of coverage in high traffic areas and/or in regions poorly covered by the relatively more powerful towers. They can also increase bandwidth by offloading some of the traffic from the relatively more powerful towers.
As another approach to improving the uniformity of service, towers can be grouped into coordinated clusters. The clusters can be coordinated to allow multiple towers to transmit to and receive transmissions from a single wireless device. Combining reception and transmission capabilities from multiple transmission points can improve services for wireless mobile devices, particularly at the boundaries between the coverage areas of adjacent towers.
However, each of these approaches to increasing bandwidth also increases the complexity of WWANs. Not only do these approaches, involving closer reuse of frequencies, overlapping coverage areas, and increased transmissions, increase complexity, they increase the potential for interference and other problems. Furthermore, solutions to such increased potential for interference become limited to the narrow confines resulting from the increased complexity.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.